The sun was setting, it was near the dinner time.

Ms. Carina brought new clothes and necessary things to him.

“Would you like to look around this house? I will guide you before prepare the dinner.” Ms. Carina asked and smiled at him kindly.

“Yes, I would like to,” said Takafumi excitedly. He wanted to do something else and change his mood.

When Takafumi went out of the room, he saw another room on the opposite side, and the stairs on the right side. The house was made in loft cozy style. They made the high ceiling on area of mini dome. He could clearly see the living area from second floor. They designed and decorated everything by woods. The house was neat and clean, it created warmth and cozy.

He went downstairs, the first thing he saw was the front door. He looked around.

‘Wow…I really love the style of this house, loft and cozy, everything looks so natural.’ He thought to himself.

Ms. Carina guided him to living area, there were bookshelves nearby, she told him to read it freely. He opened one book, the content related to plants and herbs. There were several kinds of books. He likes reading book but he needs to concentrate when he does so. He decided to do it later. He put a book back on bookshelf and followed Ms. Carina to the dining and kitchen area.

Ms. Carina explained some details to Takafumi roughly. She will be the one who responses for cooking. She was afraid that he might get hurt if she lets him cook by himself. She will prepare some fruit, water jug and glass on the bar table nearby everyday. He can eat and drink by himself when she was not in a house.

Most of furniture and tableware were made from woods. The fire place, stove, and sink were made from stones.

“How could you light the fire when you’re cooking?” Takafumi asked curiously, the oven looks like electric stove in the world that he came from.

“It has fire magic stone inside. We light the fire easily just push this button. Thanks to the humans, they developed many things like this stove. In the past, we used magic to light the fire but we were not strong in fire magic power except for Queen Agnes, the elders, and some of young elves,” said Ms. Carina, she smiled kindly.

Ms. Carina was preparing the dinner while Takafumi was reading the book in living area. After a while, the dinner dishes were ready and served on the table, and the smell was so good. There was pumpkin soup, bread, salad, and another dish that looks like pan bake of several kinds of vegetables with cheese.

“It’s delicious,” said Takafumi, normally he did not eat vegetarian food but the dishes here were very delicious. It might be the freshness of vegetables.

“I baked the apple pine. I think the children always like dessert,” said Ms. Carina kindly.

“Thank you,” Takafumi said with his gratitude, he likes her kindness. She takes care of him without any complaint and really worries that he will starve or feel uncomfortable while he was staying here.

“Could I ask you some questions?” Takafumi asked.

“Of course, if I could answer you,” said Ms. Carina kindly.

“Where is this place? Can everyone use the magic?” Takafumi asked her the basic question first.

“This place called ‘Magnus Forest’ the forest that protected by elves, it’s one part of Sapientia Empire but we had agreement with humans that we were ruling the forest by ourselves. We, elves were staying in the elves’ village. There are no human and other races can come inside the village without permission from The Queen. We have good relationship with some trustworthy humans, but we always meet them outside the village. — For the magic, the young elves can use it but the power and abilities were up to an individual. It would be better for you to ask more details from The Queen,” said Ms. Carina, she finished with the line of no deeper question.

After we finished dinner.

“I will prepare the bathtub for you. It would be hard if you do it yourself,” said Ms. Carina enthusiastically before Takafumi could say anything.

Takafumi thought to himself, ‘Did she read my mind? I was going to say that I felt bad for taking too much time from her but I realized that I was in this child body. How can I do it myself?’

“Thank you,” said Takafumi with his gratitude, it was the only thing he could do for now. He bowed his head to Ms. Carina sincerely.

Takafumi went to the living area within the mini dome, it was high ceiling with no level, which made him feel comfortable when sitting here.

He looked up through the large windows, the stars twinkled in the dark and clear sky, it was very beautiful, he has never seen a lot of stars in the clear sky like this before. He had travelled to Okinawa in Japan once when he was young, there were many stars twinkled in the sky, however, it could not compare to the number of stars that could be seen here.

He wanted to go outside to get some fresh air but Ms. Carina told him not to go outside for the time being.

‘Creak’ a man elf who brought a mirror to his room before, came in from the front door and went upstairs hurriedly after our eyes met.

He did not see the other elves around this treehouse. He wanted to ask Ms. Carina but he thought that she might not want to answer any question until he met Queen Agnes and the elders.

***

Takafumi went upstairs to his bedroom. He saw Ms. Carina came out of the bathroom.

“A bathtub is ready. You can take a bath and leave it. I will clean it later,” said Ms. Carina kindly.

“Thank you,” Takafumi said.

He took a bath, and then went to bed early. He fell asleep after ate and warm his body.

He woke up in the morning, he got enough sleep last night.

He was excited that he will finally meet

Queen Agnes and the elders. He has a lot of question to ask them, he also want to clear about his situation.

“I will take you to meet The Queen and the elders after breakfast,” said Ms. Carina kindly.

“Yes,” Takafumi said. He ate breakfast quickly.

We went out of treehouse after we finished our breakfast.

The weather was nice, the light wind was blowing, there were plenty of trees surrounding, the atmosphere was good, it was some kind of peaceful.

Takafumi walked through many trees and treehouses. He saw some elves crafting something. They avoided his eyes but greeted to Ms. Carina. Later on, she told him that it was the nature of elves, they do not talk to human who they were not familiar with.

Takafumi followed Ms. Carina until he saw the tiers of 9 large treehouses which arranged in group. A treehouse in the center was largest, the others were smaller but still larger than the treehouse that he was staying.

We went upstairs to the largest treehouse and went inside. The atmosphere was as same as the royal audience hall but in size of small lobby room, nothing luxury but neat and tidy, everything made from woods.

Ms. Carina left after bowed to a woman elf who was sitting at the center of the room. There were other 8 elves who was sitting on the left and the right of her side.

“The descendant of Helius” said a beautiful elf, who was sitting at the center of the room, her appearance was looks like goddess, she has light aura around her body, light gold hair, and gold eyes. She was wearing olive leaf crown and white dress. Her appearance could compare to human at age of thirty but the elves have longer lifespan than humans, her real age might be at least 400 years old. She must be The Queen.

The other elves also had aura around their bodies but not as much as The Queen. They were wearing their white cloaks in the same design, like the uniform. Their faces were not much different, everyone was pretty, but their figures were different by sex. They have long silver hair, silver eyes, their appearances were a bit older than The Queen. Even though, they called ‘The elders’ but there was nothing in their appearances could describe the word of elders, as far as he could tell, they look like the humans in their middle thirties.

“Um...What do you mean about the descendant of Helius, ma’am? I’m confusing about my situation. I don’t know why I was here. Several days ago, I was working at night without rest. I felt dizzy and lost my consciousness, when I woke up, I found myself in this child body. My name is Hirohashi Takafumi. I’m 35 years old and I was born in Japan.” Takafumi explained his situation without breath.

“It was fate that you are here. You are the one who was chosen by Athena Goddess” said The Queen calmly. “I got prophecy from the world tree spirit, a messenger from goddess. ‘On black moon night of June, help the descendant of Helius, his soul was a chosen one who will bring the great light to all races and lead the world from the end.’ After got the message, I sent the team to help you on that day.”

“Let me introduce myself and the elders first. My name is Agnes, The Queen of Magnus Forest. The 8 elders are high elves, Mr. Mercury, Ms. Veneris, Mr. Globus, Mr. Marius, Mr. Luppiter, Mr. Saturn, Mr. Uranus, and Mr. Neptunus,” said Queen Agnes calmly.

The elders nodded their head in greeting. They smiled at him but said nothing.

“Please follow me. Athena goddess will explain everything to you,” said Queen Agnes, she came toward him.

He saw a gold mark on Queen Agnes’s back of right hand when she came near him. It was a shape of circular shield with hourglass at center.

He wondered why someone had a mark on their hand but someone not, like Ms. Carina.

We walked through the forest. The land was large and covered with a lot of large olive trees. Queen Agnes led the way to deep inside the forest.

We walked for a while until we went out from dense forest and reached to the field.

He was stunned by the scenery in front of him. There was an enormous tree at center in a field of colorful tulips. The size of an enormous tree was around 30 meter wide and more than 100 meter high, its size was beyond the word of enormous. He could not see the treetop because it seems to be permanently shrouded in mist.

“This is the world tree, the only one in this world. Apart from elves, there is no race that can see it, as you can see the mist, I activated magic power to protect it. The humanity did not know the existence of world tree. So, please keep a secret,” said Queen Agnes calmly, “there is a world tree spirit, a messenger of Athena Goddess and The Queen of spirit world, staying here.”

The world tree spirit appeared when we reached to the world tree. A beautiful woman, wearing flower crown and yellowish-green dress, she has long green hair and gold eyes. She looks like an angel in fairy tale.

She looked at Takafumi and said, “Athena Goddess is waiting for you.”

Her body changed to be another woman. A beautiful goddess, strong aura around her body with bright and shining light, she has long gold hair and gold eyes. She was wearing white dress like the goddess in the stories of classical mythology.

“My name is Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war who was taking care of this world. We finally met each other, Mr. Takafumi” said Athena Goddess, she smiled at him.

***